About the Numbers

Definitions

Sources of the data

The National Industry-Occupation Employment Matrix is developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as part of its
ongoing Employment Projections program. Data from the 2014–2024 matrix underlie
information on occupational employment growth presented in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. The 2014 matrix was
developed primarily from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey,
the Current Employment Statistics (CES)
survey, and the Current Population Survey (CPS).
The 2024 matrix was developed as part of the procedures used to project occupational employment.

The 2014–2024 National Employment Matrix that presents employment for approximately 300 detailed industries and
800 occupations was used to develop data for this web site.

Occupational classification

The occupational structure of the Matrix is based on the structure used by the OES program, which includes detailed occupations from the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system.

More information about the Standard Occupational Classification system is available at: www.bls.gov/soc/

Data on self-employed workers are based on
Current Population Survey (CPS) data for equivalent occupations.
A crosswalk was used to distribute CPS data to occupations in the National Employment Matrix.

Projections methodology

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projections of industrial and occupational employment are developed in a series of six
interrelated steps, each of which is based on a different procedure or model and related
assumptions: labor force,
aggregate economy,
final demand (GDP) by consuming sector and product,
industry output,
employment by industry, and
employment by occupation.
The results produced by each step are key inputs to following steps, and the sequence may be repeated multiple times to
allow feedback and to insure consistency.

Projections updates

National employment projections are developed every other year. The next National projections cycle will cover the 2016–2026 decade. Those projections are scheduled to be published in the Monthly Labor Review and to be available on this web site in late 2017.

Note

The accuracy of projections for individual occupations is subject to error because of the many unknown factors that may affect
the economy over the projection period. Furthermore, while occupational employment projections and related job outlook information can provide valuable inputs to the career decision-making process, they should not be the sole basis for a choice of career.